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Venerable Professor Bhikku Dhammavihari
Thero is no stranger to Than Hsiang Temple in Penang. The Venerable
Professor had stayed and taught the Buddha Dharma at Than Hsiang
Temple and also at the Klintiendharm (Than Hsiang) Foundation in
Thailand from 1999 to 2000. We were honored that the Venerable Professor
revisited Than Hsiang Temple from the 3rd to 7th April 2005. Venerable
Professor Dhammavihari was escorted by Venerable Sumana who is also
from Sri Lanka. The Professor mentioned of memories of the beautiful
statue of Kwan Im and the Da Bei Dian, as it was here nearly five
years ago that the Venerable Professor gave several Dharma Talks
and even a Pali Language course to the Penang public.
One of the highlights of the Venerable Professor’s
visit was a meeting and discussion with Ven Wei Wu, the abbot of
Than Hsiang Temple. In their meeting, the Venerable Professor presented
a few of his latest books to Ven Wei Wu.
The senior Professor who is already 84 years of
age is very healthy and active both physically and mentally.
Even after a tiring flight which was delayed for 4 hours, and arriving
at Penang at 1:30 am, the Professor was up early and after his breakfast,
he still takes his daily early morning walk as a form of routine
exercise. Then the Professor made a tour of Than Hsiang Temple.
Professor Dhammavihari was very impressed with the Than Hsiang Mail
Shrine Hall and spend a long time going through the details of the
construction, design and décor. After seeing the images of Sakyamurni
Buddha, Venerable Ananda and Venerable Kassapa, the Professor requested
that replicas of these images to take back to Sri Lanka. According
to the Venerable Professor, images of Venerable Kassapa are not
readily available in Sri Lanka. To the Professor, Venerable Kassapa
is a great teacher after Lord Buddha. He also expresses his happiness
to see the Main Shrine Hall as it is now and the progress Than Hsiang
Temple had made, as the hall was not ready when he was last here.
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The Venerable also visited the Than Hsiang Kindergarten and the
Wan Ching Yuen Senior Citizen Home where he participated in the
Morning Puja and Chanting.
Apart from a tour of Than Hsiang Temple, the Venerable
Professor also visited the Mahindarama Buddhist Temple and went
looking for Buddhist books at Sukhihotu Buddhist Article Shop.
While at Than Hsiang Temple, Venerable Professor
had the chance to meet a few of his former students, and held discussions
with them. He also wrote about his views on the teaching of Buddhism
for our e-Zine.
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